West Kelowna bests Kelowna in livability says MacLean’s Magazine

When it comes to livability, West Kelowna has one-upped its bigger neighbour across lake.

In the latest MacLean’s Magazine list of best places to live in Canada, West Kelowna has come in 35 spots higher than Kelowna on the annual list of 417-communities.

West Kelowna was named the 65th best place in the country to live, while Kelowna placed 100th.

The top overall spot on MacLean’s annual list was Ottawa. In B.C., Oak Bay, a suburb of Victoria, took the number one provincial ranking, placing third overall in Canada.

In the Okanagan, the highest rated community was Coldstream, just south of Vernon, which placed 15th in B.C. and 63rd overall. Second in the Okanagan was West Kelowna (16th in B.C). Kelowna was 23rd in the province, with Vernon 44th out of 62 the B.C. cities included on this years national list. It placed 221st overall in Canada. Summerland was 58th in B.C. (327th overall), Penticton was 59th in B.C. (335th overall) and Lake Country was 61st in B.C. (342nd overall). Peachland was not listed.

The magazine’s list ranks communities, large and small, across the country based on 36 separate categories. Areas include demographics, unemployment, health and wealth, affordability, taxation, mobility, crime, weather, health care, amenities and culture and community.

Top features for West Kelowna were listed as low taxes, high wealth and incomes and nice weather. Top features for Kelowna were listed as being transit friendly, having good health accessibility and having low taxes.